Laura's Reviews

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Thursday, December 8, 2016

What can a widow do in Regency England when she is
suddenly left with an Inn to upkeep and no practical experience to do it?Jane Bell was raised a lady, but after a
disappointment in love, marries innkeeper John Bell.After John’s untimely death, Jane has been
left with his Inn and basically lives in denial for a year after his
death.When it becomes clear that the
inn will soon be doomed without action, Jane rises to the occasion.There to help her is her mother-in-law, gruff
but effectively Thora, and her brother-in-law, Patrick.The inn is the center of their small village,
Ivy Hill, as Jane soon learns, the rise and fall of the Inn will affect the livelihoods
of many beyond the immediate Bell family. Will Jane be able to save the Inn?

I love that The Innkeeper of Ivy Hill is a novel about
an entire village with many intriguing characters and storylines.With the story starting after John’s death,
there are many small mysteries to figure out.Why are Jane and Rachel no longer friends and what does it have to do
with Sir Timothy?Why did John take out
a large loan endangering the Inn with no trail on where the money actually
went?Why was John gone the day of his
death?Who is Gabriel Locke and why did
he appear after John’s death willing to work for such a small salary?I found the characters compelling and
multi-layered.For example, when Thora
comes back to town and is critical to Jane, the reader would think that she is
going to be a one-dimensional evil mother-in-law.In fact, she is a compelling
multi-dimensional character.Thora has
lost her beloved son and also the rights to the Inn.The Inn was her family inn that went to her
husband upon marriage, to her son upon her husband’s death, and now to her
son’s widow at his death.She has no
rights to it or its future, but she loves it.Although she is 51, Thora has more than one man trying to woe her and I
LOVED it.

Rachel Ashford was once Jane’s friend.She was disappointed in love and takes care
of her ailing father.He has lost his fortune
and his estate is entailed away to a distant cousin.Upon his death, Rachel is left in a quandary.What does a single youngish gentlewoman do
when she is thrust alone amongst the world?Luckily she has her friend Mercy who runs has faced a similar
predicament and runs a gentile school to survive.Mercy has gathered together a group of the working
women of Ivy Hill in a knitting club where they can talk about problems they
face as women trying to run a business.Jane Bell realizes from the club that she needs to support other women
and that there is support for her across the village.

The theme of women trying to make it in a man’s world is
prevalent throughout the novel.I thought
it was very intriguing and it really made me think about how hard it was to
make it if you were without a husband or father figure in your life. I loved
all of the characters in the village and the storyline was very engaging.I also loved that there was a map of the
village at the start so you could visualize where various locations were around
town.

I loved the following quote as it echoed Mr. Darcy in
Pride and Prejudice:

“I realize I possess not those happy manners to ensure
my making friends easily.”

The Innkeeper of Ivy Hill is the first in a planned
series.I can’t wait to read more in
this series. There is much more to this story and I want to spend more time
with these characters.

Overall, The Innkeeper of Ivy Hill is a wonderfully
engaging novel full of intriguing characters and storylines.I highly recommend it and can’t wait for more
in the series!

Book Source:Review Copy from Bethany House.Thank-you!

Book Description
The lifeblood of the village of Ivy Hill is its coaching inn, The Bell. When the innkeeper dies suddenly, his genteel wife, Jane Bell, becomes the reluctant landlady. Jane has no idea how to manage a business, but with the town's livelihood at stake and a large loan due, she must quickly find a way to save the inn.

Despite their strained relationship, Jane turns to her resentful mother-in-law, Thora, for help. Formerly mistress of The Bell, Thora is struggling to overcome her losses and find purpose for the future. As she works with Jane, two men from her past vie for her attention, but Thora has promised herself never to marry again. Will one of them convince her to embrace a second chance at love?

As pressure mounts from the bank, Jane employs new methods, and puzzles over the intentions of several men who seem to have a vested interest in the place, including a mysterious newcomer with secret plans of his own. With the help of friends old and new, can Jane restore life to the inn, and to her empty heart as well?

Visit talesfromivyhill.com to find a map of the village, character profiles, a book giveaway, and more!

Author Bio

JULIE KLASSEN loves all things Jane--Jane Eyre and Jane Austen. A graduate of the University of Illinois, Julie worked in publishing for sixteen years and now writes full-time. Her books have been honored with the Christy Award for Historical Romance, the Minnesota Book Award, and the Midwest Book Award, among others. Julie and her husband have two sons and live in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota. For more information, visit www.julieklassen.com.

Giveaway
Be sure to enter the giveaway before you leave—the winner will receive a $20 Teavana gift card and a package of four inspirational British romances from four different eras (The Innkeeper of Ivy Hill by Julie Klassen, A Haven on Orchard Lane by Lawana Blackwell, The Lost Heiress by Roseanna M. White, Not by Sight by Kate Breslin). The winner will be notified on December 22.

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Shelby Sloane has received the best present a
graduating high school senior in 1981 could receive – a 1966 yellow Shelby
Mustang.She has lived a sad life
wondering what had happened to her mother after she was abandoned as a
child.She decides to take the yellow
Mustang on a road trip west after graduation to California to try to find her
Mom.Her ex-best friend Gina finds out
about the road trip and asks to tag along to meet her boyfriend in
California.Shelby has everything
meticulously planned and doesn’t really want a companion until she realizes
that Gina will pay half of the bill.They start on their road trip and things immediately go from bad to
worse.Gina’s family has stops set up
all along the route that are out of the way and include the two carting dogs
around the country.Shelby also picks up
a hitchhiker which is expressly against everything their families had told them
before leaving and against the rules that Gina and Shelby have made together.

The girl they pick up, Candy Cane, is mysterious,
troubled and also wants a ride to California.When the girls discover that there is a threatening man after Candy
Cane, they decide to take her with them.Will they make it to California?What is the secret behind Candy Cane and what happened to Shelby’s
mother?

I was very interested in reading this novel as I’ve
heard a lot of great things about Paullina Simons, in particular, The Bronze
Horseman.I’ll admit I was disappointed
by this book.The writing was excellent,
but I found I didn’t really like the characters and it felt like their story
was never ending with not much movement.Once they got on the road and picked up Candy Cane, the story seemed to
be constant fighting about whether to keep Candy in the car or not and a very
long journey on 2-lane highways across the country to avoid pursuit.I felt the ending was a letdown as well.I don’t want to give more details as I don’t
want to ruin the story for others, but I felt there were no surprises and the
characters were not compelling enough for me to care about their story.

Favorite quotes:

“But there is another road in Nevada that takes you
almost there:U.S. 50, the loneliest
road in America.”

“I was young, that’s what the young are supposed to
do, not think about much, not thing about consequences, and so I hadn’t.”

“You know what I have been thinking traveling with you
through every mile of this country?What
if there is no place in the world for me?”

Overall, Road to Paradise is a road trip and coming of
age story that had good writing, but characters that I did not find compelling.

Book Source:Review Copy as part of the TLC Book Tour

About Road to Paradise

� Paperback: 544 pages
� Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (November 29, 2016)
Love, passion, and friendship collide on the road trip of a lifetime in this breathtaking novel from Paullina Simons, internationally bestselling author of The Bronze Horseman and Tully.There�s no telling where a journey will lead you�
Shelby Sloane has big plans for the summer of 1981. She�ll drive cross country in her graduation present�a classic yellow Mustang. In California, she hopes to find the mother who left her behind long ago, and then return East in time to start college. Her childhood friend Gina is desperate to reunite with her boyfriend in Bakersfield and has convinced Shelby to bring her along.
With Gina on board, Shelby�s carefully mapped-out itinerary is quickly abandoned. Soon, so is their �no hitchhikers� rule when Shelby picks up a mysterious girl named Candy Cane, who sets them all on a new and dangerous course. Streetwise beyond her years and decked out with tattoos, piercings, and spiky hair, Candy is on the run from a past darker than anything the two suburban girls have ever known. Candy draws Shelby and Gina into her terrifying world, where life as they know it is turned upside down and there is no place left to hide.

Purchase Links

About Paullina Simons

Paullina Simons is an internationally bestselling author whose novels include Bellagrand and The Bronze Horseman was born in Leningrad in 1963. As a child she immigrated to Queens, New York, and attended colleges in Long Island. Then she moved to England and attended Essex University, before returning to America. She lives in New York with her husband and children.
Find out more about Paullina at her website, follow her on�Twitter, and connect with her on Facebook.

A Baxter Family Christmas is a wonderful family Christmas story that
offers hope, sadness, joy, and love all in one story.John Baxter’s daughter Erin, her husband, and
three of their daughters died in a horrific car accident two years previously.One daughter survived and lives with Erin’s
sister Ashley and her husband Logan.Erin’s heart lives on in another, Kendra Bryant.John decides to invite Kendra to the Baxter
family Christmas Eve party and this causes much conflict in the family.Will the Baxter family be together this
Christmas Eve or driven apart by this conflict?Will Kendra Bryant be able to put her life back together with her
husband Moe after this surgery?

I enjoyed all of the characters in this novel and thought it was set up
well for a person like me who had never read a Baxter family book.I really enjoyed the main story of Kendra and
her invitation to the family Christmas.The
family has gone through hardship and loss – what does it mean to lose an
integral part of your family and how do you move on?There is also a sweet romance between 18-year
old Maddie West (daughter of Brooke Baxter West) and 19-year old college
student Connor.They have a
misunderstanding as Maddie tries to work through guilt on something that
happened in the past to her sister that she feels responsible for.I also enjoyed that this was a Christian
novel and faith was a large part of the novel.It’s faith that ultimately gets everyone through their hard times.

One annoyance I had with this audiobook is that is started with an
endless stream of thanks by the author.For an audiobook, this would be better placed at the end of the
book.I listened to five minutes of
thank-yous and then remembered there was a fast-forward button and skipped to
the next section.Luckily the next
section was a review of who all of the characters are in the Baxter
Family.It is apparently a very long
running series and being new too it, this was invaluable to me to set the stage
for the story.I liked how the narrators
switched depending on if it was a male or female point of view – they had
unique voices which kept me engaged in the story.I also liked how there was a large section at
the end with recipes from the story.I
love recipes!Karen Kingsbury also
announced that the Baxter family will be on TV – I definitely need to read more
of this series and check out the show.

Overall, A Baxter Family Christmas is a wonderful family Christmas
story that I greatly enjoyed.It was a
wonderful holiday audiobook that really put me in the Christmas spirit!